Jammer's Review

Star Trek: Voyager

"Prototype"

Air date: 1/15/1996
Written by Nicholas Corea
Directed by Jonathan Frakes

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan

"Don't make me laugh Starfleet ... and don't make me pull rank on you either." — B'Elanna to Harry

Nutshell: A plot-oriented episode with few unexpected turns. Inoffensively standard.

When the crew finds a mysterious robot drifting in space, Lt. Torres takes it upon herself to repair the damaged unit. It's a longshot, but her adept engineering skills are up to the challenge, and when she repairs the unit, it turns out to be more than just interesting technology, but a sentient artificial being.

The unit has a name—or, more appropriately, a designation. It's called 3947, and it's just one of an entire line of sentient robots produced by a now-extinct race known as the "Builders." The units do not have the programming to repair or replace their power units—only the Builders have that capability. Since B'Elanna can successfully repair power units, 3947 thinks she is a Builder. He asks her to build a new prototype unit which could be copied in the future without the assistance of a Builder. This way his robot race could revitalize their waning population and avert their imminent extinction.

B'Elanna is drawn into 3947's situation, so she asks Captain Janeway to approve the building of this prototype. Janeway can not approve this, though, because it would clearly be interfering in their culture. That's right—"Prototype" is another Trekkian take on the Prime Directive Issue. But that's just the first cliche—the second is the Nature of Life Argument.

It's a credit to the writers that, although these are both fairly jaded premises in the Star Trek universe, they can still keep things entertaining. Even if watching Torres and Janeway argue these issues is not all that compelling, it is a pleasure to see their points of view come to the surface. Janeway's Prime Directive argument here is much better suited to the premise than in the pedestrian "Time and Again," and much more polemical than the seemingly arbitrary (and relatively ambiguous) decision she made in "Caretaker." At the same time, this gives Torres her best vehicle since "Faces," revealing a sense of creation in her character that we haven't seen until now.

B'Elanna tells 3947 she can't build the prototype. 3947 finds this unacceptable. So when the Voyager meets 3947's ship to return its lost unit, he kidnaps B'Elanna and beams onto his ship—holding her under the condition of building the prototype model. If she refuses, the commander of the robots' ship will kill her and destroy Voyager.

"Prototype" is a marginal Voyager episode. The premise is so-so, with some above-average execution. But there are some general elements about the season that are beginning to show their exhaustion here. Take, for example, nearly the entire third act. This is where Janeway tries to negotiate with the alien ship for B'Elanna's return. Where the alien ship refuses. Where Janeway opens fire. Where the aliens return fire and cause the bridge set to smoke and explode and the camera to shake.

How many iterations of this dialogue has the series supplied, concurrent with the bridge rocking, the lights dimmed, and the red alerts flashing? I can name six instances this season alone containing such scenes: (1) The protozan beating in "Elogium," (2) the unidentified alien attack in "Parturition," (3) another unidentified alien attack in "Persistence of Vision," (4) the severe atmospheric storm in "Tattoo," (5) the Kazon bombardment in "Maneuvers," and (6) the Mokra planetary defense strike in "Resistance." The similarity in these scenes is startling. Tuvok usually makes some status report, Kim usually confirms it, Janeway gives an order, the bridge shakes and some circuits explode. I, for one, am sick of these variations of act three. Voyager has so many pointless, unimaginative battles, and the creators don't come up with any spin to make them fresh. Instead they use the same cliches that give Star Trek its reputation for inept space combat. I'm game for something new.

Then there's Paris, who I'm beginning to think is the Official Commentary Person on the Exchange of Dialogue on the Viewscreen. How many times this season has Janeway or Chakotay talked to the aliens on the other ship, and then after its over Pairs remarks something like "They're a friendly sort"? Granted, this isn't exactly a crucial element of the show or the series, but it's something that pops up enough that I thought I'd mention it for some trivial food for thought.

There's also a lot of unnecessary technobabble in the early acts. B'Elanna spouts so much technical gobbligook in act one that it begins to sound like a joke. Perhaps some of it is. One sarcastic response the Doctor has ("That's exactly what I was going to say") somewhat lessens the annoyance of the non-stop jargon, but one thing Voyager has entirely too much of is technobabble. To the producers: Decrease it. Please.

But I digress. Despite these annoyances, the story works, even while being one of those connect-the-dots type of stories where you can all-too-easily follow the progress from one anticipated step to the next. These steps include the arrival of another ship piloted by rival robot units, B'Elanna's successful construction of the prototype, and the revelation that these two warring robot races actually killed their Builders. B'Elanna realizes that by building this prototype she would be allowing one side to create an army and overwhelm the other—exactly what the Builders wanted to prevent by inhibiting their abilities. This gives B'Elanna no option but to destroy her prototype, despite the consequences to her or the Voyager. Fortunately, right after B'Elanna destroys the prototype, Paris comes to her rescue with his hotshot shuttlecraft piloting skills, and while the two robot ships are fighting, Voyager slips away.

How does this episode overcome a mediocre premise and a number of cliches? I'm not sure. Probably because, aside from a few isolated moments, the directing and acting is on-the-money. The writing supplies some good character moments and some nice touches, too. Best is Chakotay's line to Paris, "I'd hate to lose another shuttle." (After all the shuttles Voyager has lost, it's good to see the writers finally acknowledge it. Those things don't grow on trees in the Delta Quadrant, after all.) And Paris' response "Your concern for my welfare is heartwarming," is a good touch, reminding us of the history these two guys have. They never really liked one another. I can't remember the last time we had any character interaction between these two, and this little exchange is fun. Now it's time for a story putting these two on some mission together.

36 comments on this review

While it is a Star Trek tradition that internal security is very poor, I
felt this episode was ridiculous. It was OBVIOUS that the robot posed a
grave threat - the survival of its race was at stake - but the crew seems
totally oblivious and allows it to kidnap Torres with ease. At least they
could have assigned a couple token redshirts to guard it!

I just re-watched this episode and while it did have some cliches in it, I
did enjoy. I would given it a 3 star rating. The technobabble was a bit
much, but it was okay in the sense they were discussing robotics and
therefore there were going to be some long technological names. The story
moves at a swift pace and the direction under Frakes was teriffic. Frakes
did comment that the costumes for the Robots was awful and that could have
been a little more creative, but I did enjoy the episode. The
conversations between Torres and Janeway were great and we started to get a
sense that Torres now respects Janeway and sees her as her captain.
Overall, I defintely enjoyed this episode to recommend it.

Totally agree with the 'internal security' comment. After the Kazon
captured transporter technology in Maneuvers (all of 2 episodes ago), you'd
think Voyager would stop all transports (or use of other ship technology)
by non-crewmembers. Oh well.

Also, it appears that the writers were starting to realize that Voyager
being the strongest ship in the Delta Quadrant was going to be bad for
drama.

And Kes gets like 2 lines....so I give this episode 1/2 star for each Kes
line.

I thought the ship was supposed to be getting home? Why does the crew pick
up stray piece of chunk in the galaxy on their way back for?

The premise of this episode just doesn't work. Tuvok was right - let the
power drain and be on your way. Logic does in fact work.

I just don't understand what any of this has to do with getting home.
B'Elanna talks about this challenge as if it's more important than getting
back to the Alpha Quadrant.

I can understand investigating things that have a reasonable chance of
getting them home, like in the episode "Cold Fire". But I have to draw the
line when it comes to robotic beings, rusted iron, etc. Are there sensors
even configured to detect this crap at warp 9.9? Absurd.

And then make it out to be a moral issue... and that's fine, but it doesn't
work for this kind of series. We've had these kinds of episodes on TNG - a
series built for that sort of thing.

For a crew that needs to get home, they certainly know how to waste their
time.

@Ken- it's also part of the premise of the show that they are also trying
to explore the Quadrant as they go- and it seems clear they're not
constantly going at maximum warp- they're always stopping to check stuff
out.

Anyway, I like this episode, it's a bit 'stock', but as stock VOY episodes
go, it's enjoyable.

That's very hypocritical of Janeway to say she must do everything possible
to get her crew home... and at the same time... check out every nook and
cranny in the galaxy.

There has to be some standard of which to judge their exploration. If that
exploration will help them stay alive, get the ship to move faster,
investigate wormholes... fine. Those things support the premise of getting
home.

@Jammer I am so glad you brought up the Tom Paris bit! I was thinking the
same thing while I was watching this episode. Tom said his "very polite,
these automated units" line and I rolled my eyes so hard I think I might
have sprained my eyeballs. This show take formulaic writing to the
extreme.

You know, I watched Star Trek Enterprise in it's totality a few months ago
and kept up with your reviews as I went along. You did a really funny (and
very apt) review of "the xindi" where you went off on a tangent about
Berman and Braga creating scripts using the F keys on their keyboard in the
writers office for automatic script cues. I think you had pressing F12 as
the "send Archer and Crewmate to jail" button. But, man, I feel like that
scenario is even more plausible on Voyager.

F1 - the crew finds some random crap floating in space, stops to check it
out.

It bothers me so much how they never really show Voyager deal with all the
beatings it takes. The ship loses it's shields, has hull breaches and
generally takes a licking in almost every episode. And yet, in the next
episode the ship is always fine. It doesn't even have a scratch on it! It's
ridiculous.

I always know that whatever kind of thrashing the ship takes in a given
episode won't ever really matter, because Voyager is a show that refuses to
really think about consequences. It makes it very hard to care about all
these fourth act space shoot outs.

@Ken I agree with you on this point. It always bothered me how Voyager
seems to stop for every little thing. It's like going for a drive with my
mom. When she's in a certain mood, she wants to stop for everything! If we
pass near a neighborhood where someone she knows used to live, we have to
go drive by. If we are near a place where someone she knows used to work,
we are going to alter our course to go see how the place looks now.
Suddenly what should have been an hour or two with mom has turned into an
entire day. And that's fine, because I love my mom.

But, if we found ourselves suddenly stuck in, say, Mexico and discovered
that we had to find a way to get my mom back to Detroit and she still
wanted to stop at every little restaurant or bar she ever had a good memory
at, that would be a different story. I would have to say "sorry, mom. But,
I'm not stopping this car to see if that guy in Nuevo Laredo still sells
those churros you like.", and that is pretty much how I would feel about
Janeway stopping for every little particle of rust on the way back to the
alpha quadrant if I were on her crew too.

Ok, about this specific episode, did anyone else think the robot kind of
looked like Lal from TNG painted silver? That's some pretty disappointing
costuming. Still, the story moved well and I always enjoy Be'lanna. I agree
with Jammer on this one. It was definitely inoffensively standard.

I don't feel enough attention was paid to the fact that unlike your
standard should-we-cure-the-virus-or-not prime directive ethical dilemma
ROBOTS DON'T DIE and giving them the ability to procreate at will means
they can expand their numbers exponentially until the galaxy runs out of
metal ore.

This episode was so-so. The roboter ideas didn't really look fresh for me,
but then it hasn't been done in Star Trek I guess, at least not too often.

The technobabble in Voyager was annoying not only because it was too much,
but also because it is often inconsistent and seemingly made up on the fly.
The writers were doing a really bad job in that regard.

Space battles become really annoying after a while. No matter how
technologically evolved the alien space ships are, Voyager will always be
in mortal danger but it also has a fighting chance every time. Voyager is
as powerful as the story needs it to be. Instead, the writers could have
tried to adapt the story to Voyager's power more often.

This blog site has really influenced my Trek viewpoint. When they were
first out, I hated (HATED) DS9 and its space cowtown premise, where every
few days some local rowdies had to be rounded up and dealt with. I also
hated Sisko and his "I'm having an anxiety attack" method of acting. But
now I can appreciate its arc and character growth as superior to the Reset
Button mentality of TNG and Voyager. Think of how great Voyager could have
been if, instead of examining every nook and cranny of the Delta quadrant,
in a paler version of TNG, we showed a ship growing progressively beaten
down, held together with chewing gum and baling wire, where the focus was
always on getting a few miles closer to home. The prime directive would
have to be somewhat battered, and morality would take a back seat to
forward momentum. Characters would grow more irascible, less Star Fleety,
and there'd be a lot more pairing off. But it could have been a great
series.

I'm convinced Weyland-Yutani was one of the founders of Starfleet. Why else
do they never learn that studying obviously malicious aliens and technology
should be done before you reactivate them on your ship?

As an engineer, I could relate to B'elanna's drive to repair and create -
it's a wonderful feeling when things are brought back to "life". But as an
engineer I also watch lots of robot-apocalypse movies so I saw through this
plot from minute one. Being the Chief engineer of a starship she should
have known better and designed in some clever after-warranty destructor
timer like Samsung engineers do today.

Another solution would be to give the prototype robot new programming. 3947
seemed open to possibilities that the other robots were not. Create
programming that is of a more peaceful nature, and hardwire it into the
power source. Then, give it to both sides. Of course, there wasn't time for
that.

But the robots should have enough information to get a head start, if they
have been monitoring what Torres was doing.

Ha, pretty comendable premise. But in fact so many flaws that it gets on
the nerves. One of them is precisely the inconsistente way they have used
the Prime Directive in na episode heavily based on it. Like: "Torres my
darling, we cannot interfere saving their lifes. Oh yes, but we have
brought one of them to life like gods, and with my authorization! Holy
crap!".

Another is pointed by Liam just above: ha, these robots migth have warp
tech. What would be helpful as hell and also let officers much more free
without stepping on the Prime Directive. But did someone thought of
learning if they had before making decisions? Nope, who the hell needs
warp, right?

Still, there was something powerfull in the oldschool way the look of these
robots. And paradoxically, something juicy in the "lesson" Torres learns
about why the heck there is a Prime Directive. This was quite interesting
and a relief, considering how DS9 for instance seems to exist in a parallel
world where there is no Prime Directive at all...

Finally, talking about DS9 and Voyager comparison, I have to congratulate
the comment made by @duhknees. Well done! Although I still didn't watch
Voyager to the end and although I still think DS9 got really bad from the
end of season 5, Voyager totally had the potential do use a "shades of
grey" tone, a darker tone, much better than DS9. Voyager would have been an
ideal instalment to explore trully interesting dubious moralities that
emerge when the crew becomes isolated for too long. When they have to fight
and help others in a hopeless scenario. When they loose (btw they should
loose sometimes) crew members all the time they find planets offering good
live conditions. Officers like Sisko go crazy in DS9 (even becoming
religious from the nowhere), start doing all sort of things that would be
reason enough for going to prison (like destroying entire planets). And the
lazy excuse is alway the high pressure they were under because of being in
the eye of the confront. What means: by expieriencing what they were there
in the station for... While Voyager had the true potential for a great Trek
show powered by real moral ambiguity without having to completely
disrespect usual Starfleet and Federation portrayal as DS9 did in the end.
While in DS9 some viewers even seem "human condition" talking louder - what
btw is philophically silli and the ultimate disrespect to Trek as it is in
any other show - in Voyager, shades of grey cast by a real continuity could
deliver the debate on how people individually sustein their values when
they stay too far and for too long from the social environment where their
ethics were forged.

Of course, I digress, because it was not what happened to Voyager.
Unfortunatelly. Voyager missed a very good oportunity, and the fact the
comendable premise of this episode in what regards Torres dealing with
respecting the Prime Directive againm, ends up not having real significance
in the next episodes. Sad.

I'm with Charles here; I wonder if the idea was specifically to mimic the
era of the original series. I mean, the idea of robots who killed their
inventors, only to continue on the war their inventors started is about as
50s or 60s style sci-fi cliche as you can get. Same with the look of the
robots. I know a lot of people complain about it, but, well, it kinda fits
the theme. Like I said, this has a very retro feel to it.

So it's a Torres episode, and how did it work? I'd say it did ok, but
nothing spectacular. The first part of the episode, with her obsessing
over the robot, came out of nowhere. Does she get this emotional about
every new piece of technology? She was practically bawling over the dumb
thing. Scientific curiosity I can see, but this seemed over the top.
After that, however, things started to fall in place for her. Her initial
willingness to try to create the prototype goes along is reasonable enough,
and her sense of betrayal by her kidnapping is believable as well.

The best Torres scenes were while she was working on the prototype. It was
pretty believable that she would lose herself in her work, and so the
scenes where she was practically cheering over the work that she was being
forced to do against her will actually worked despite being a bit
disturbing. Given that the show was doing everything possible to declare
that building the prototype was the "wrong" course of action, we had the
hero of the show desperately trying to finish it. And when she completes
her task, she's completely happy about it, despite the fact that she was
forced to do it in the first place.

Which, of course, makes her "what have I done?" moment work as well. Like
I said, it's believable that Torres would have ended up so wrapped up in
the task, so single-minded in her pursuit of a technical problem that she
would forget the ethical ramifications. And the sense of accomplishment at
finishing such a task momentarily overrode her common sense. I mean, yeah,
the matter-of-fact way the robot explained how they killed their inventors
was a bit cheesy, but like I said, this whole episode felt old fashioned.

And so you feel a bit sorry for Torres, and for the prototype. It's not
the prototype's fault that this perpetual war is ongoing, and yet Torres
killed him anyway. Is this a case of murdering an innocent "for the
greater good"? Does the episode consider such a dangerous ethical
ramification? Of course not, that would be too meaty. But I did like the
way that scene was portrayed. The prototype's innocent repetition asking
for input worked to solidify the fact that, well, none of this was his
fault. And the tension of the scene, with a battle going on and the
robot's calm demeanor in explaining everything and the fact that Voyager
was going to simply grab Torres and bug out (explicitly leaving behind the
mess they helped create) meant that Torres really didn't have time to
decide the best course of action. So she kills her own creation. Because
that's all she could do to stop a perpetual war.

That could have been heavy material. But it's still decent material, at
least. If only the first half of the episode was as good as the second
half.

The problem with Voyager is that no one stops to think things over. Janeway
took all of five seconds to decided that she wasn't going to allow helping
the robots reproduce and that's that. She had good reasons... there was a
lot they didn't know. But how about stopping for five minutes and asking
the robots some questions (i know that ruins the SURPRISE that they killed
their masters and were still at war but who didn't see that coming...)

Someone above mentioned that their first question after learning The
Builders were dead would have been "what happened to them?" Even though the
answer is pretty obvious in tv land, one could also see a scenario where
The Builders died from war attrition and depletion of their resources. The
next question should have been about what the robots had done since The
Builders died. Maybe you find out they are fighting a never ending war with
the other robots. Maybe you ask the robots what they expect would become of
them if Voyager helps them reproduce and they win their war against their
enemy... suddenly, the robots realize how empty their existence would be
without their enemy. Without Builders to give them a new purpose what would
be the logic in continuing to exist. Now you trade the tech to help the
robots to reproduce and offer to become their New Buiders. stick around,
help them destroy their enemy so that when they are done, you can step in
and give them purpose... YOUR NEW ENEMY IS WHOEVER WE SAY IT IS. Now
Janeway has an armada of ships crewed by killer robots to escort her all
the way to the alpha quadrant. When you get to the alpha quadrant you offer
them a some planets in the federation... they don't need M class
atmospheres. Sure... there's some ethical and prime directive issues here.
But it's Janeway. She's done far worse for less. Hell Janeway could have
shown up in the final season of DS9 and have her killer robots wipe out the
Breen, Dominion and more importantly Cardassians, thus the Maquis crew
achieves vengeance against their enemy.

Hell Janeway could have shown up in the final season of DS9 and have her
killer robots wipe out the Breen, Dominion and more importantly
Cardassians, thus the Maquis crew achieves vengeance against their enemy.

----------

HAHAHAHAHAHA! I love it! That definitely should have happened, what a
missed opportunity!!!

If you can get past the ludicrous conceit that the Voyager crew would try
to resuscitate an artificial life form they know absolutely *zilcho* about
(Tuvok's "this is a security risk - understatement of the century!) then
this was actually a good episode - maybe 3 stars. The robots looked
reassuringly "Buck Rogers" - I kept expecting that little guy who went
"biddledediddledediddlededeee" to pop his head round the door (Tweaky, was
it?) one thing this episode proves is that the writers of "Nemesis" never
watched Voyager. Mr Data is alive and well several decades after TNG in
this timeline...